In this sermon, the preacher discusses the prevalence of sudden death in America and the need for God's saving mercy. He shares his personal experience as a former infidel and how God had the power to save him. The preacher emphasizes the importance of killing the flesh and dying to oneself in order to receive God's truth. He also mentions the resistance of church members to accepting the truth and reminds the audience that God will ultimately judge and save everyone.

The scripture says that the Holy Spirit gave to the church some apostles and some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. And I'm convinced that the Holy Spirit does still today give the gift of prophecy to some men for some churches. We have a number of such prophets around the country today. I think that Merle Fuller is a prophet. Most of you know him. He ministered at Thomas Road Baptist Church. He has a very unusual message, a penetrating message. I think Vance Havner, for those of you who will remember him, I think he is a prophet. He has certainly the gift of the Holy Spirit in a very unusual way. I think Dr. A.W. Tozer of the Christian and Missionary Alliance is a prophet. For certainly no other man in America today, or writing in America I should say, has the insight into the holiness of God and the expectation of God concerning the walk and behavior of Christians. And I believe just as equally that God's gift of prophecy is upon our speaker. He has been a tremendous personal blessing and challenge to me and already on yesterday as he brought the morning and the evening message we have sensed that God is saying to us some very unusual things. I'm so glad that there is a large number here tonight for the first time. I trust that as the Lord speaks to your own heart that you'll find other nights this week that you can be out. I say this in a very sense of gravity and sincerity that it will be a long time before we'll have a voice of this nature around our city again. So buy up the opportunity if you will and be resolved that you'll not linger on the same plane of Christian living that you've been on but that as God has opened your eyes and is pleased to give grace you'll rise up to a higher plane. Now, Brother Ralph Barnard, you bring us what God's laid on your heart. Thank you, Brother Patrick. I'm honored to have these distinct pastors, these neighboring pastors. It's always an honor for one pastor to go over and say sikkim and amen to the efforts of another in a congregation of people to bring glory to the Lord and good to men. Tomorrow night we'll be speaking on the subject, Seeking the Lord. This generation of church people say they have salvation but they don't have the Lord. Somewhere or another down the line we divorce Christ and salvation and all the testimonies I hear we thank in the Lord for what he's done for us but you're not saved unless you love him for what he is, not what he's done for you. This generation can tell you when to save but they don't walk with the Savior and they've missed Christ, they've missed Christ. No man will ever become a Christian unless Jesus Christ, not for what he can do for you but for what he is, becomes your supreme quest. You have to go after him with all of your heart, with a singleness of effort that will not be thwarted or you'll never get acquainted with the living Christ who carries within his body the power of his shed blood on the cross. The greatest miracle that God works in any day is not the raising of a dead body or the healing of a sick body but it is the changing of a God-hating resistor into a humble Christ-seeking seeker. No man's ever saved unless God works the miracle of grace and sets him panting after not what the Lord can do for him but for the Lord. The Bible doesn't say seek what the Lord can do for you, it says seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. I've been preaching this week, I've tried to spend this afternoon. I took a little cold last night, didn't bring overcoat. I thought it was summertime and last time I was here the preacher up and made it pass 26 inches of snow the first night and this time we've got a winter blast. I'm full of aspirin and I may explode but it'll be all right. But I tried to think and pray through this afternoon the messages. I hope to speak so that Saturday night I may bring a harvest message on the subject watching men die. For the first 16 months I was a preacher, I averaged three funerals a day. Some days I preached as high as seven funerals a day. I was the only preacher in the city of 50,000 people in an oil town and people died like flies. So in my early ministry I find out what the churches of Jesus Christ never have learned yet, that people die. They do. People die. And to die without God, I've had so many hundreds of people die begging me to keep them out of hell. I've never been able to get over it. It's an awful thing to stand at the bedside or sit at the bedside of a man begging you to keep him out of hell and you can't do it. You can't do it. And then Sunday morning we hope that the Lord will help us to bring our message that I've seen in my little ministry. I don't know how many of them were saved. Over 17,000 people have professed to be saved as I brought that message. That's the only message I have that I keep on preaching. God seems to use it. It's the hardest message. The God of the Bible kills people. Is he going to kill you? He kills Christians to get them out of the way lest they fall into the damnation of the world. And he kills sinners whose cup of iniquity gets full. The God of the Bible kills people. Every time two people in America die now, one of them dies suddenly. America is the land of sudden death. And then we bring that message in the hopes that Sunday night, our closing message, we can speak to the subject how God saved an infidel. I was the infidel, president of an infidel club in a Baptist college where 300 of the students joined the infidel club. I raised lots of hell while I was an infidel. And I know God has power to save. In the 40th chapter of the book of Isaiah, our beginning message, scripture tonight, I wish to speak on God's saving mercy tonight. And before we read the scripture, I'm going to speak on the most humbling thing that I've ever faced and the most challenging thing that I've ever faced. In a moment we're going to read about that thing that humbles the soul and challenges all of God's people. The message of evangelism is twofold. The first message of true evangelism is to kill the flesh. The flesh must die. There isn't a single truth that fell from the lips of Jesus Christ that you can take and chew and digest and still live. You've got to die to take God's truth. Die to your preconceived notions and die to every ambition of the rebellious age flesh such as you. So the man who would fit in to the rising tide, it's coming back, there's revival on the way. It's coming, it sure as I'm standing here. It's coming because we're so desperate, some of us are beginning to admit it. It's coming because God promises, I will pour water on thirsty ground and there are more thirsty souls today than at any time you've ever lived. It's coming because God never left himself without a witness and we've gone about as far as we can without him now and there's a resurgence, it's still small but it's growing. And I'm as certain as I'm alive that should the Lord be pleased, Tarrin is coming, the glory of the church is yet future. It's a great day coming, praise God. And it'll not come apart from a return to Bible preaching. There are just two things that God's people can avail themselves of in serving a sovereign redeemer and going his way, not against him but along with him. Jonathan Edwards said the task of every Christian generation is to find out the direction in which the sovereign redeemer is going and then go along that way. You can't book him. You're going that way and the Lord's going that way, you're not going to get anywhere. It's just flesh and the flesh profited nothing. But if you can find out which way the spirit of the living God's blowing and go along with the tide, that's the way to go. That's the way to go. And if we would serve our generation in our day, we'd return to the message that kills the flesh and points men, behold, your God. Isaiah said, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that cries in the wilderness. It's interesting to know that to him that's crying is almighty God and he uses a voice to do the crying with. I learned that a long time ago. John the Baptist was called the voice of one crying in the wilderness, repent. God called him into repentance to use the voice of John the Baptist. And so I occupy the pulpit. God help the preacher not to apologize but to occupy the pulpit. God help the Christian to occupy the space God's given you. Amen. Brother, you can't beat me. I'm a voice that one does the preaching of almighty God. I don't command people to repent. God does. I don't point men to Jesus Christ. God does. I'm just a voice. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places clean. We talked about this Sunday morning how revival will come and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Thank God. It's yet future. And all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. That settles it. God said it. It's all coming. What shall the voice say? The voice said cry. And he said what shall I cry? Well cry all flesh is grass. We're learning that finally. All of our tricks and high-powered methods to push Jesus off on people who feel no need of him are rebounding in our faces now. We've given holy things to dogs and cast out pearls before swine and now our churches are places where you have to have a sheriff and two deputies every time you have a business meeting. They'll rend you and that's what we are now. There's more unmitigated hell going on inside of our churches today than there is down in the saloon. That's right. All flesh is grass, it always has been and all the godliness, goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth on it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth but the word of our God shall stand forever. O Zion, that bringeth good tidings get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah Behold your God. This generation is not acquainted with the God of the Bible. The pulpits of America for forty years have magnified man, not God. The so-called gospels got us in the mess we're in now has taken the glory from God that he says he'll give to none other and has given it to men. Until our testimony meetings now are so blasphemous if God were not a God of mercy he'd kill us every time we get up and pray about what we've done. All flesh is grass. Always has been so. There's just twofold message. All flesh is grass. Whatever you do, brother, it'll play out, it'll wither. This generation needs to be appointed Behold your God. The God who commanded darkness to shine light to shine in darkness for sin has shined in our hearts to give the knowledge of the glory of God where? In the face of Jesus Christ. No man saved who hadn't seen the glory of God not with Esau in the face of Jesus Christ the face is painted in the gospel unless you've beheld the glory of God and a bloody savior hanging on a cross you know nothing about salvation unless you see him who's now been exalted sit down on the right hand of God on a throne forever and you're happy he's on the throne you know nothing about salvation for if you wish to have a personal experience with and power from the living Christ you've got to get to where he is and he's sitting on the throne this generation knows nothing about an enthroned savior all it knows about is this little Jesus that you can accept as your personal savior keep your pride keep your pet pen and go on ahead in the first book of Timothy at chapter 1 is the most challenging passage of scripture to my own heart once the most humbling and the most challenging that I've ever seen beginning at verse 11 of the first chapter of the first book of Timothy there you have it I'm anxious that you take your pencil and mutilate your Bible a little bit for here the great truth of verse 11 is somewhat obscured by the King James translation the King James translation that I have before me reads according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God but it ought to read this is not being smart but here's the deep truth that I want you to miss it really reads according to the gospel of the glory of God according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God which gospel of the glory of the blessed God Paul said was committed to my trust I won't get back to that in a minute and he says I thank Jesus Christ our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer here's what I got to brag about I was a blasphemer this is flesh and a persecutor and injurious but I accepted Jesus Christ my personal Savior and went on to hell and also he obtained mercy I come back to tell you Jesus is not offered as your personal Savior nowhere in the Bible is anything that smells like accepting Jesus as your personal Savior I know that's what you said you've done but if that's all you've done you're still going to hell you can't get your little pen knife and cut Jesus up you see the so called gospel that filled our churches with this gang of hell raisers is only one half of one third of the whole Christ Christ is presented he's been made unto us of God Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1.30 he hath of God been made unto us wisdom and sanctification and righteousness and redemption all the wisdom God has for you has been the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ we got a generation of Christians now that can live from Sunday to Sunday and never crack the Bible call themselves saved the teachings of Jesus mean absolutely nothing to us they're going to hell depending on a profession or a decision they make but a Christian couldn't live all day without feeding on God's Word couldn't he? you mean tell me a Christian could go all day without eating a meal that God saved why of course he could of course he could of course he could everything that God has for men it's in Christ he's been made of God we didn't elect him God made unto us from him everything everything no man will ever be interested in Jesus shedding his blood on a glory cross until he's had his flesh shriveled by the soul-searching flesh killing the mans of God from the lips of Jesus Christ the whole gospel is to preach the whole Christ who brings us the message from God who hangs on a cross as a priest we preach that but we don't even preach his present work we couldn't stay saved a half a minute if it wasn't for the priestly work of Jesus Christ just now our advocate at the right hand of God and then God Almighty you didn't elect him but God elected him to be Lord he's Lord of men whether they recognize him or not he's prophet, priest, and king and salvation is in being joined by faith to Him come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden with the gospel invitation I'll rest you how you rest me take my yoke upon you and learn of me you have no rest unless Christ's yoke of authority is around your life is that right? unless you go in school to the divine teacher the Lord Jesus Christ you don't know a thing on God's earth about salvation you trusted a proposition you never met the Christ of the Bible he cannot be cut up he cannot be cut up one half or one third of Christ has been what you call the gospel for three or four generations I'm telling the truth folks no wonder we've got a mutilated church membership if you couldn't drive to a prayer meeting they don't know Christ and we preachers have butchered them long enough we need to preach the whole Christ he said I've came mercy I've came mercy ladies and gentlemen get this straight I believe in the five ministries but the New Testament says that the day God saved you he called you to be a preacher is that right? now the Catholics divide you and me and say I'm the preacher and you're the hearer but that's Roman Catholicism, that isn't Bible you know that's so and no use for us to laugh at that if you are saved it's not optional whether you are representing Christ or not you are his representative it's not optional whether you're a witness for him or not you are his witness it's not optional whether you'll be a proclaimer of the gospel you are a proclaimer of the gospel and I invite every professing Christian here to do with me let's ask Paul to move over and say Paul, we've got to get in on this according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God which was committed to my trust oh my soul what will we do when we face the soul we butchered these last years for refusing the preacher gospel that revealed the glory of and the utter nakedness of me the only gospel that God almighty turned over to these feeble hands and lips and eyes and heart is a gospel that points men away from themselves to see God's glory where? in the portrait and testament in the paints of the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord first mentioned all of you are acquainted with the first time a truth is found in the Bible you find out its meaning throughout the rest of the scripture if there's anything I've been interested in these 36 years I've been trying to learn how to preach the gospel the good news of what? of the glory of God long since I learned what everything's all about this earth is just a giant stage on which God has one purpose to manifest and display the glory of his son Joseph Smith's confession was right the cheap end of man is to do what? to glorify God and to enjoy him forever the day you make the winning of souls your first concern is the day you become a butcher of souls it's secondary the one thing that's preeminent what things you ever you do whether you eat or drink or pray or preach or in the air do it all for what? for the glory of God if God seems fit to get glory out of the rescuing of Adam's foreign race thank him for it but the big thing is the glory of the gospel all these food methods these so-called evangelist you glorifying man detracting from the glory of him who has borne my glory I will not give to another but Ichabod is being written on the door of our church building God's glory is departed nor we got flesh flesh, flesh, flesh stupid, putrid flesh, your flesh your religious flesh my flesh in the book of Exodus chapter 33 we have the first mention of the glory of God in the Bible here is one of the most solemn passages of scripture ever been my privilege to read in verse 18 of Exodus chapter 33 Moses asked the most stupendous question I think any man ever asked almighty God Moses clenched his fist and summoned up all of his courage and said to God I beseech thee show me thy glory I want to see your glory wasn't that a dumb question and God said alright I'll tell you what I'll do now you watch I'm going to show you my glory here it is I'll make all my goodness pass before thee and I'll proclaim the name the authority of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy and he said thou can't not see my face for there shall no man see me and live and he said Lord set behold there's a place by me and thou shalt stand upon a rock and it shall come to pass wouldn't you love to dine there while my glory passeth by what is it my goodness my proclamation of the name that has authority the authority of the Lord and my sovereign mercy I exercise mercy as it pleases me and I exercise grace as it pleases me those are three things that promote the glory of God the goodness of God stand now on the rock Moses and as my glory passes by you can't look at it all it's too much I'll put thee in a cliff of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while my glory passeth by thou take away mine hand and thou shall see my back part there's six left who couldn't see it it's killers who couldn't see all the glory of God let but see a little bit that's what this generation needs see a little bit just the back parts of the glory of God I'll take away my hand I'll hide you over there in the cliff of the rock so it won't kill you and I'll parade my glory before you thou shall see my back part but my face shall not be seen behold your God I'll cause all my goodness to pass before you I'll proclaim the name the name in the New Testament means authority there's just one name that has authority authority when he speaks nothing can withstand his words he speaks and the sea is still he speaks and the dead are raised from the grave he speaks and men in spiritual graves are made alive in Christ Jesus God's exalted him and given him a name authority I'll proclaim the authority of the Lord and I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I'll show mercy upon whom I will show mercy ladies and gentlemen you better quit butchering sinners you've been out running around here lying to sinners long enough we've got them to make a profession they're still on the road to hell one devil was driven out but Jesus wasn't enthroned and that little devil went and got seven of his kinsmen and now they've got eight demons T.P. Martin said get a man to make a profession without the enthroning of Christ as Lord fill up the vacuum you've got eight chances to go to hell where you just had one before you better listen to me we have tried to apologize for the fact that almighty God must do right but he doesn't have to show mercy and thus we keep on grace and keep on mercy and we go out and sinners tell us when they take a notion they're gonna get saved and they think that the mercy of God and the grace of God is in a big pot just waiting for them to come and get a little difficult and get saved and this generation doesn't recognize that grace and mercy are in the hands of the living Christ and that a man in order to receive saving mercy and saving grace must have a personal contact with him who has grace and mercy to give and God help us this generation needs to hear again that if you got any claim on God it isn't mercy it's death and if God has to show mercy it isn't mercy it's death and if we start preaching this way some people would get them a club and try to kill God but others would change their tune and once more in Lincolnburg Virginia men would catch a hold of your coat tail and say brother Gold you got just a minute yes do you suppose that a holy God would maybe save a fella like me wouldn't you love to hear some that's scriptural brother that'd be a revival now in our zeal we go out and try to get them to accept Jesus and they don't do it they don't need him or if they go through the motions there's nothing vital in the motions oh when will we ever learn that God says my glory will be displayed and made manifest and put into action by me being gracious to whom I will be gracious I'll decide and I'll decide to whom I'll show mercy that's all last generation of preachers been going up and down the land talking about oh God's got to give everybody a fair chance salvation's not by chance it's by grace amazing grace God doesn't owe anybody a chance God doesn't owe anybody a fair deal God doesn't owe anybody one listen to the gospel God doesn't owe anybody salvation if he did he owed the death of Christ and that's monstrous no salvation is of God's mercy and God's grace and if we got some people saved they'd never get over it and they'd give the praise to God they'd spit amber juice in the devil's face and say I'm a trophy of God's unachievable amazing redeeming grace that he showed to a sinner like me and it'd ruin them for this world and they'd be transformed it wouldn't be perfect but bless God they'd have a new heart and a new spirit and new ambitions and new ambitions and you'd have one more in Sunday school next Sunday and the budget would be a little higher and there'd be one more in prayer meeting and things would start to kick up if we just had guts enough to start standing on our hind legs and saying that God almighty is sovereign in salvation and he'll decide how he dispenses his mercy I want to read you a tremendously solemn passionate scripture would you be so kind I know that you have your Bibles you're there from different churches you're of the inner circle of different churches and I want you to read with me in the 11th chapter of the gospel according to Matthew excuse me the 11th chapter of the gospel of Matthew I'll read you a solemn passage of scripture beginning at verse 20 here's the continental divide preparing for the first gospel invitation to an individual in the new testament here's where the Jewish nation through its leaders have rejected Jesus Christ as Messiah and then verse 20 says then when the rejection is full began he to upgrade the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not and he braved them as to this why I warn to thee to raise and warn to thee Bethsaidae the forest of mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes but I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you and thou Capernaum which art exalted under heaven shall be brought down to hell for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would remain until this day but I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee now notice the next verse on those solemn words judgment passed down into hell condemned by the people of Sodom verse 25 at that time Jesus answered and said I thank thee oh father he's actually thanking God notice what he thanks God for I thank thee oh father Lord of heaven and earth why because thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto the babe you better come down off your high horse bud you're going to hell God will hide truth from you even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight isn't that some prayer of thanksgiving now notice verse 27 all things are delivered unto me of my father the Lord made that claim and no man knoweth the son but the father neither knoweth any man the father save the son and he to whom so ever the son will reveal him Jesus said if you ever get acquainted with God I'll have to make him real and hon this damnable stuff that you got saved because you decided for Christ that was born in hell salvation is not by decision decision is always response that Paul made a decision acted on Lord what wilt thou have me to do what Christ had revealed and said salvation is when God made real to you is that right who can make God real to you Jesus said I can hon he reveals the father to whom so ever he will now you can get mad about that and get your club and try to kill Jesus or you can come down off your high horse and take the position of a beggar and say Lord I got no claim on you but if thou wilt thou canst make me whole and the Lord said to him and bless God he said to me I don't know what he'd say to you I will the only safe place for human beings is at the foot of the cross not making any demand just begging for mercy Paul said I have seen mercy from the one who reserves the right to give or withhold to show mercy on whom he will he said my glory brother if you ever get saved there's one thing your theology may be as bad as mine but you'll know one thing you'll know who saved you God saved you anybody ask you who saved you you say God saved me God don't save this generation of Baptists they accepted Jesus but Paul said I didn't I've seen mercy and he revealed himself and it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb call me brother gospel to reveal his son down the road to Damascus he had an experience you'll have to have one not with these eyes but with eyes of faith Christ is made real to you and when that happens you'll decide you'll say Lord that settles it what do you have me do just name it and I'll do it the idea of a man being a Christian to whom the will of God is not the biggest thing in his life is silly silly I long for a return to the preaching that just takes everything away from man all flesh is flesh your decision, your profession your goodness, your righteousness the whole outfit ain't worth a dime the only hope behold your God behold your God oh lift up your eyes and look high behold your God oh he's a redeeming God he's a saving God he's the God of Jacob he saves old horse traitors I love to preach that kind of and I like to keep preaching it takes several months before we're made of tin before all the churches in this town start appointing men not taking everything away from man of course we've made salvation by man's decision for so long that they're going to go to hell holding on to it but salvation comes from a living God behold your God lift up your eyes there's life in a look brother life in a look not in your little decisions but in God making him fair for you amen, that's right ahhh yes sir I've seen a little piece of it biggest trouble I've had for thirty some odd years is the church members fighting the truth they're just determined not to have God get the glory but God's going to get it he'll get it by famine you or saving you you've been turned over to the risen Christ he bought you on the cross he'll be your judge or your savior amen he's got you on his hands he's going to do something with you one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess what? that Jesus is Lord to the salvation that everybody knows too late for that but not too late for the glory of the Father that's what they sing how precious such scriptures as this one I read appear against the background of the fact that God almighty doesn't have to show mercy that you've got no claim on it that he's under no obligation to save you that you can get glory out of damning your soul to hell how precious it is to read in you has he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin wherein in time past he walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worships in the children of this earth among whom also all had our manner of living in time past in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others but God but God that's the difference but God who is rich in mercy he's got plenty you've got no claim on it he gives it as he pleases but he's rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin that quickened us together with Christ and it raised us up together made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his great house and his kindness poured us through Christ Jesus far by grace are you saying not by death how wonderful to read in the book of Romans chapter 10 such an expression as this in the background of the sovereign mercy of God for there is verse 12 no difference between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him isn't that wonderful what I'm pleading for if we tell people the truth all your little efforts that's grass that withers no hope except in God you've got no claim on him he's pleased to give mercy to whom he will cut him out or become a beggar who knows you might be able to join Paul and say I've seen mercy I bet you he'd be mighty glad if he did eh? that's the God I praise behold your God ahh he didn't have to but in grace he stooped to save old Rothbard I was an infidel benign God he saved me he didn't kill me and send me to hell he showed mercy I've seen mercy I ain't never been able to get over it oh what a wonder that Jesus found me out in the darkness no light could I see oh what a wonder he put his great arm under and wonder of wonder he saved even me oh if our churches were full but all these people that had obtained mercy never had been able to get over it oh they said you know what God showed mercy to me oh yes I was a sinner and God showed mercy he that's obtained mercy would be mighty merciful to others wouldn't he